Tense

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"
Romans 5:8

There are probably a few different reactions to this verse. For the non-Christian, you could be confused about what sin is, why Christ died, or how someone dying is a demonstration of God's love. That's fine and we could get into that, but that's for another day. A non-Christian could also look at that and think it's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo in some book that people put entirely too much faith in. That's fine too, and we could also get into that...but that's also for another day. Finally, the Christian reads this verse and probably thinks, "Duh! Why am I still reading this? I'm not learning anything!" So now I ask that you bear with me.

Now to be honest, at first glance this verse seems kinda dry and elementary. It's what we've learned since Sunday School and singing "Jesus loves me this I know". Anyone who's been around a church more than a couple times has probably heard something along those lines. With all that said, if you look at Romans 5:8 a second time, there is one word in there that makes it absolutely extraordinary. You can have a second to guess which one it is.











Alright, think you got it? The word is: were. Yup, were. And it's not so much the word (after all, any form of "to be" is as dry as it gets), it's the tense of the word. Let's look at the verse again:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Let's go through a thought-process of analyzing this verse.

So God demonstrates His love for us. How? In this. What's this? This = "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us". Ok, so were is the past-tense of "to be". Who's "wereing"? We are (or were? =P). What were we? Sinners. What's a sinner? An enemy of God, deserving of an infinite punishment (Eesh!). And since the verse says "we", it means all of us were sinners.

With these thoughts, let's write the verse a little differently:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While all of us were enemies of God, and deserved an infinite punishment, Christ died for us

Said that way, we start to appreciate the power of this verse. We were God's enemies! In Jesus, God said to us traitors, "Want a punishment? Here! I'll.....die for you. I'll take on what you deserved so you don't have to!" Amazing.

However, we're not done yet =D Now let's look at were. We said before it's the past-tense of "to be". So, we were enemies of God. That means we are something else. That means we are no longer enemies of God! How? Because God placed His punishment on Christ!

In other words we were sinners. We are now saints! We were dead. We are now alive! We were stained. We are now washed clean!

Many times, we live life thinking we have to measure up to God. We think we have to be good enough for Him to love us. When you think of that, think of Romans 5:8. Through Jesus, God took away the measuring stick. You are a saint!

To be continued...

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"
Romans 8:1

Strandation

Imagine you are stranded in a desert. With no food, water, or shelter, you figure it would be best to pick a direction to walk and hope for the best. You're walking....walking....walking.......walking.........and walking until you can walk no further. As you lay in misery realizing you are at the end, a figure comes into your blurred vision. You feel a cool liquid go down your throat and soon after you are standing up with more energy than you can ever remember. You no longer see the figure, but they whisper to you, "If you want more, go towards the twinkle on the horizon. You will see many oases on the way, but do not stop at them."

The voice stops, and you dart around looking for the figure, but you only see sand. You wonder about what just happened and soon think about what he told you. Scanning the horizon, you notice a small twinkle! With your newfound energy, you begin walking towards the twinkle with the hope that the figure was telling the truth. Your thoughts rest completely on the relief that the liquid gave you as you were dying.

Time passes and you notice an oasis. You really aren't that thirsty, and you remember the words, "do not stop at them". So, you keep your eyes fixed on the twinkle and continue.

More time passes and you feel kind of thirsty. You see two oases and really want to stop at them. You think, "I will only stop at this one on the left. I will keep the twinkle in my peripheral vision so I don't lose sight of it." Being careful to watch the twinkle, you veer from your path and head toward the oasis. After reaching the pool, you bend down to drink and you are refreshed. You look up, find the twinkle, and resume on your journey.

Again you become thirsty, but you don't see any oases. You keep following the twinkle, and finally an oasis comes into view on your left. With a parched mouth and knowing that the last one caused you no harm, you wonder why the figure warned you against them and head towards it. You bend down, refresh yourself, then you look up. In front of you are dozens of oases that extend to the horizon. You think to yourself, "Wow, this is a lot easier than going after the twinkle and getting thirsty. I will just follow these oases and I will look for the twinkle if I get in trouble."

So you keep going, stopping at an oasis when you get thirsty. You go for a while and notice the oases become more sparse. Your thirst becomes greater between each one, so you end up using a "first see, i go" policy, which means you go to the first oasis you see, drink, then go to the next oasis you see, drink, and so on. As you continue this policy, you notice it's taking a long time between stops. You walk, get thirsty, stop, see an oasis, walk, stop, drink, see an oasis, walk, stop, drink, and so on for a while, then you walk, stop and drink. Rising up to look for the next oasis, you scan the horizon. You can't find one! Not even the one you came from! As a last resort, you look for the twinkle. Nothing. You are once again stranded in the desert with no idea where to go. You figure it would be best to pick a direction to walk and hope for the best......

Now for the point of the narrative about you that never actually happened to you. Actually there is no point.



Just kidding =D

So imagine strandation (not a word, I know) in the desert is like us when we are unfulfilled. We don't really know what to do, so we just walk in some random direction seeking satisfaction. This direction could be a girlfriend, boyfriend, a job, school, success, or something along those lines. Since we usually like to screw up what we do, we eventually end up lying on the desert sand with no hope.

Now the figure comes along. He quenches your thirst and restores you with the liquid, and then gives you direction by telling you to follow the twinkle. This is Jesus Christ. He rescues us from death in the desert. He restores in us the ability to go in the right direction.

So now we follow His instructions. We start walking towards the twinkle because He told us there was more fulfillment there. In other words, we start seeking our Heavenly Father for satisfaction.

What's the deal with the oases? Why did He tell us to stay away from them? Imagine the oases as temptations to quench your thirst with something other than God. These could be your boyfriend, your girlfriend, random hookups, getting wasted, pornography, or even "smaller" things like your job, success, money, and your self-image. Following the story, we start out strong. We see the first oasis and avoid it. However, as we continue to walk and God challenges us, the oases start looking really tempting. We ignore the figure's warning and go drink from one, but we do keep the twinkle in sight. We succumb to the temptation, but we try to keep walking towards God soon after. The problem with this is that later on when we become more thirsty, we find it easier to go towards the oases. We say, "the previous one did no harm, so why would another visit harm us?"

That's where we get hooked. We go again to drink from an oasis, then we look up and see dozens of oases. We continue down this road, continually forgetting about the twinkle and increasingly turning to the oases. We get immediate gratification from something other than God, and we start seeking that instead of Him. Eventually we get so lost in this cycle and end up back where we started. Stranded in the desert. Unfulfilled and without direction. Thankfully God is merciful and will come pick us up again!

From birth, everything in our being wants instant satisfaction. We look, we want. We see, we need. As in the story, this usually gets us into trouble, and worse, it really doesn't satisfy us at all. We need to keep our eyes fixed on the twinkle. We need to seek Christ above all things. Even when He seems silent. Even when we're really thirsty. Even when His warnings seem silly. After all, He did rescue us from the desert =D

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4